[Advaita-l] Sandhyavandana procedure doubt

[Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan]

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Abhishek Madhyastha
<abhishek046 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Pranams,
>
> My doubt is that is it mandatory for brahmins to wear a upper cloth,
> i.e shalya during sandhyavana? I'm an udupi kota brahmin(smartha) and
> i was taught to do it just in the dhoti (kacche panche to be precise)
> and I've been doing so from many years but recently few relatives of
> mine(not kota brahmins) told me that its absolutely mandatory to wear
> a shalya. I've never seen any of my cousins wear it. Contrarily, those
> relatives say they've never seen anyone do it without the shalya.
> Could some learned member please clarify this for me and tell me on
> what basis this is practiced? Sorry for asking an off topic question.

The braahmaNa vaakyam for the shalya is from taittiriiya aaraNyaka (of
the vomited stuff fame) 2.1. It starts saha vai devaanaam ...

As per saayaNas bhaaShya,

yaj~nopaviita-saadhanam dravyam vidhatte:

aji!na.m_ vaaso! vaa dak.si.na_ta u!pa_viiya_ - iti (using Wikners
notation for svaras)

kR^i.s.naajina-vastryor anyataradravyam dak.si.nabhaage lambamaanam
kR^itvaa adhiiyiite ityarthaH.

So, it is mandated by the vaakyam to wear either a deer-skin cloth or
an ordinary cloth with the right side starting off longer draped
appropriately for deva and manuShya yaj~nas.

But before you rush off and change your practice, note that local
practice may not conform to such injunctions. You should consult a
learned elder and also the older ladies who know about these things.
For example, the nambudiris don't seem to wear shalya either.

Not off topic - very on topic. I am tired of the multiple idiotic
threads on sex, food, vomiting parrots, etc., which have been going on
the last few months.

Rama